Who was I kidding? Iknewthe odds were about as likely as me winning the lottery, and I never even bought tickets. Where there was smoke, there was fire.
"Here goes nothing," Beth said, leading the way through the swinging door that separated the dining area from the kitchen.
As soon as we stepped into the kitchen, we gasped collectively. The once gleaming stainless steel counters and appliances were charred and covered in soot. Half the kitchen had been utterly destroyed, and the smell of burnt wood, melted plastic, and smoke hung heavy in the air. A wave of nausea overwhelmed me, and I fought the urge to bolt for the nearest exit.
Carol's eyes filled with tears as she took in the devastation. "Deva, I'm so sorry."
Deva stood in the middle of her ruined kitchen, tears streaming down her face like a river that had burst its banks. I didn't blame her, it was like a scene from one of those disaster movies where everything goes wrong all at once. More than one tear had slipped out of my eyes as well.
"Oh, Deva." I wrapped my arms around her.
My friend sobbed into my shoulder, her body shaking with the force of her grief. Carol and Beth joined us, creating a tight circle of comfort amid the wreckage. It was us against the world, just like it had been when we were kids. Just like it had been in all our many adventures since I returned to Mystic Hollow.
Carol rubbed Deva's back gently. "We're here for you. We'll get through this."
"Damn right," Beth said. "This isn't the end, Deva. Just a bump in the road."
The truth was that this was more than a bump in the road, but we all knew that it wouldn’t help anything to say the words aloud. Deva was a perfectionist. She wanted everything in her life to be perfectly controlled. Something like this could be enough to completely crack her if she didn’t have the support she needed, and we all knew it, so we would be that support for as long as she needed it.
That’s what friends do.
Besides, with her determination and hard work, something like this would be overcome. Her restaurant might take a while to start back up again, but I knew it would. I wouldn’t expect any less from the incredible woman who had walked home on a broken leg once when we were kids.
Deva sniffled, pulling away from us to wipe her face with the back of her hand. "You guys...I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Let's not find out, okay?" My words earned me a watery smile, which I considered a win. "Now, let's figure out if someone put a curse on your restaurant. Because if they did, they're going to regret messing with us."
A curse, we had decided last night, was the most likely cause of the fire. Of course, the fire could be the result of some other kind of magic, but Beth, Deva, and Carol all got the feeling this was curse related, and I wasn’t about to doubt the three witches. They knew this magical world far better than I did.
"Absolutely, let’s figure this out," Deva said, her voice shaky but resolute. "I'm not going to let whoever did this ruin my life." She shook her head, like shaking off the tears. "First, we need to know if it was a curse or just an accident."
Or if it was something else, but I don’t say that. A statement like that would be about as helpful as a pit in a cherry pie. We didn’t need useless things mucking up what we were doing.
"Right." Carol looked around the room thoughtfully. "So, how do we do that? I mean, it's not like there's a 'cursed or not cursed' app we can download on our phones."
"Actually," Beth said, a sly grin spreading across her face. "There might be something even better than an app."
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow, skeptical but intrigued. "What might that be?"
"An old-fashioned spell," Beth said, wiggling her brows. "I found a ritual that can help us figure out if there's any dark magic at play here."
"Sounds promising." Deva's face lit up with hope. "Let's do it."
"Okay," Beth moved toward the door. "Let's move to the dining room and get this spell started."
"Right behind you." We left the charred remains of the kitchen and entered the front area of the restaurant.
Beth gestured to the windows, which were still letting in a fair amount of daylight. "We don't want any nosy passersby peeking in while we're performing magic. Let's close the blinds."
"Good call." I stepped forward to help them adjust the blinds. As I did so, I couldn't help but see how grim and dusty everything looked under the harsh sunlight. The once-pristine dining room now resembled a scene from one of those post-apocalyptic movies Henry loved to watch during his movie marathons.
"Let me just grab my supplies, and then we can begin," Beth said, rummaging through her backpack.
"Supplies? What kind of spell is this?" I asked. "Are we talking eye of newt and toe of frog? Because I draw the line at anything involving amphibians."
"Relax." Beth laughed. "It's nothing like that. We're just going to create a circle of protection and invoke the elements to help us detect any lingering curses."
"Ah, well, as long as it doesn't involve frogs..." I trailed off comedically, which drew a sorely needed laugh from Deva.
